DA 2010 Episode 11: Incarcerated
by AngelExposed
Summary: The X-Men are still investigating further into Remy's whereabouts. Kitty and Rogue decide to use some illegal methods in order to learn more and discover some important information that may change everything for Mutants. (R&R, finished).
1. Chapter 1: Attempted Tracing

AUTHORS NOTE:   Okay, just want to make something clear before I start, I'm not a hacker, but some of Chapter 4 has hacking in it, I got the ideas off of the hacking game by Introversion called 'Uplink'. (Buy it by the way, its some good shit),  I don't know how to hack so I used the basics of the game.  Don't blame me if it sounds stupid or wrong. 

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 11

Chapter 1:  Attempted Tracing

          Jean Grey sat down at the computer console, tucking her hair behind her ears, she frowned at the monitor, "alright," she told herself, "I'm going to do it this time, I'm going to find out something this time," she tried to convince herself.  She'd been at the computer all day and almost all of yesterday, hoping to find some information as to high profile robberies that had taken place two years ago around the time that Piotr' cousin Ivan had been asked to locate Remy LeBeau.   

          It was almost a long shot, really, but there was no telling what this kind of information would lead to, and right now, it was all that she could do to help.  Remy wasn't showing up on any scans on Cerebro, and Jean herself was already beginning to lose hope there might be no way to locate the man.

          But it was necessary.  Locating Remy might be the only way to locate this mad geneticist who had stolen Hank's research.  There wasn't much else to go on right now.

          Jean turned as Rogue entered the room, the soft pat of her Sketchers upon the tiles was barely audible but Jean had been stuck in the silence of the War room all day that any sound as tiny as it was would have distracted her in an instant.

          "Thought you could use some coffee," Rogue explained, she walked over, placing a cup down on the counter space next to the mouse Jean's hand was upon.  "Find anything?"

          Jean took a quick glance at her team mate.  Rogue seemed childlike without a tiny trace of makeup upon her face.  Her figure was less than flattered by the baggy flared jeans she was wearing and the oversized Yankees t-shirt she had pulled over a long sleeved shirt.  Her hair was left loose, un-styled and probably un-brushed.  Something about the way she appeared left Jean feeling she didn't care about looking good – only cared about finding out where Remy LeBeau was.

"Nothing – well nothing that would be worth anything to us," Jean sighed, "high profile robberies are usually covered up from the media to avoid publicity, especially covered up by the security firms who were handling the items stolen," she explained.

          Rogue took a seat nearby, "What did you mean 'nothing that would be worth anything to us?" she asked.

          "A few robberies took place in Louisiana, expensive artefacts stolen…" Jean explained, she took a sip of the hot coffee.

          "Remy wouldn't have had anything to do with those robberies, he stayed away from Louisiana this last seven years," Rogue admitted softly, she stared at the print outs that Jean had made concerning the robberies in Louisiana.  "Besides, Louisiana is where a Thieves guild headquarters is located, any thief could have done that," she pointed out.

          "Good point," Jean sighed, "I don't know where else to look," She sighed.

          "Have you seen Kitty at all today?" Rogue asked casually, "I can't find her."

          "Oh, she's in the city, seeing a counsellor," Jean said, "she's still a little traumatised about her parent's death, the Professor thought it might help to speak about it with someone outside of the Mansion."

          "That's a good idea," Rogue nodded.

          "Hi, you two."

          Rogue and Jean turned, Scott Summers had entered the room, in uniform, he'd obviously just ended a training session judging by the sweat glistening on his brow and tainting his hair, his uniform was slightly damp and torn ever so slightly.

          "Hi," Jean smiled softly, she raised her head just a little as Scott leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips, "Danger Room?"

          "Been training with the students," Scott replied, he ran his fingers through his hair tiredly, "Sunday afternoon training, remember?" he reminded.

          "Oh, yeah," Jean realised and rolled her eyes at herself.

          Rogue stared up at Scott, "how were they today?" she asked, generally the students were hers for the Danger room on weekday mornings, and it was something she was good at was leading them through training sessions, trying to build them into a team. 

          "They were fine, except from—" Scott began, but Rogue finished his sentence before he could.

          "Monet," Rogue interjected.

          "How'd you know?" Scott smirked.

          "How else," Rogue gave a smirk also, "what'd she do this time?"

          "Well…I asked the kids to do the exercise in a certain way and Monet undermined me and took over and convinced them to do it a completely different way…" Scott lovingly moved Jean's hair away from her face and gazed down at her for a moment.

          Rogue tried to ignore the romantic moments between the two, she sighed and forced a brave face, "and did they get through the exercise?" she asked.

          "Yes.  They did, not the way I would have liked, they took the easier route, but in the end they did it…I guess I shouldn't complain but…Monet's lack of…respect leaves a lot to be desired," he sighed.

          Rogue stood up, "Welcome to my world," she clamped a hand on Scott's shoulder, "it sucks, you're gonna love it," she put on a smile, "I'll see you guys later, alright?"

          "Yeah, alright," Scott sat beside Jean.

          Rogue sighed and left the war room, out in the hall she remained a moment near the slightly ajar door, just taking in a breath and trying to gain some control of her emotions.  Being around people who were madly in love certainly didn't help when she herself was yearning for Remy with all her heart.   She found herself remembering how much simpler her life had been when she'd been fifteen and madly in love with Scott Summers and never able to say how she'd felt.  Something that now merely qualified as a childish crush. 

          "Let me guess.  You're thinking how much easier things would have been if you'd just gotten together with Mr Summers when you were my age as opposed to haven even gotten involved with Monsieur LeBeau in the first place…"

          Rogue turned, Monet St Croix was standing nearby, arms folded, her long black hair braided and hanging over her shoulder, her brown eyes glittering in amusement.

          "What is it with you and analysing everyone?" Rogue demanded, she headed down the hall, and Monet followed.  "And how would you know about me and Cyclops anyway?!"

          Monet merely smiled, and took the question in her stride, "the way you look at him and Miss Grey, it doesn't take a genius to see it, although I'm the only one admittedly who seems to have noticed.  It's almost the same way that Mr Drake looks at you."

          Rogue had almost forgotten about what Bobby had told her, about being in love with her.  She'd pushed it out of her mind on the night of Valentines day to focus on the situation with Remy.   But here it was now the sixteenth of February, two days later, and she hadn't even spoken to Bobby to apologise for how badly she'd behaved to the revelation, or to apologise for blaming him for Remy's demise.   "What is it you want, anyway, Monet?" Rogue stopped halfway down the hall and turned towards the younger girl.

          "I was wondering if I might be able to take over the Danger Room training sessions for you this week, you're clearly tired and would be risking our safety," Monet said flatly.

          Rogue gaped at her, she wasn't sure how to react to his question, she finally opted to raise an eyebrow, "what makes you think I would trust you to continue training the students."

          "You did yesterday morning," Monet reminded, "I just feel that I would be doing much more good behind the glass than in the Danger Room…I'm becoming incredibly bored with the training sessions, they're a bore, and there isn't a training session that isn't teaching me something I don't already know.  I studied Danger Room strategy and Protocol before I even started sessions in there."

          "Monet, you're sixteen, you can't just be allowed to take over the Danger Room sessions even for a week," Rogue headed down the hall again.

          "Haven't you ever felt bored with the Danger Room, Rogue, knowing your invincible and can destroy any enemy in there, can never die from being hit…"

          "I don't train for my own experience," Rogue stated, "I train for the others," she frowned, "I let you take over the Danger Room yesterday because I was in a bind and there were much more important things to be discussed."

          "Yes, indeed, I have heard about the situation with the clone…that is quite remarkable…you must have been quite happy that he was not the real Remy LeBeau," Monet smirked.

          Rogue lost her temper, she spun around and pushed Monet to the wall, "How do you know all this?!"

          "Word travels fast in this mansion," Monet replied quite calmly.

          Rogue yanked her glove off, "We'll just see about that…" she reached out to touch Monet's forehead, and came close, before the voice of Bobby Drake interrupted her.

          "Rogue, what the hell are you doing?"

          Rogue pulled her hand away, "nothing," she replied quickly, "I was teaching Monet intimidation techniques."

          "Of course," Monet stated serenely in response to this.

          Rogue slipped her glove back on, "Monet, go back to the upper levels, you know you're not meant to be down here without authorisation."

          "Yes, Rogue," Monet replied with a respectful tone and left quickly.

          When she was gone, Bobby and Rogue looked at each other.  Bobby's eyes seemed almost empty, "what the hell was that all about?" he finally asked.

          "You don't want to know," Rogue said, she sighed deeply and began to approach, "I was just on my way to find you," she said sheepishly, "I think we really need to talk, Bobby…"

          Bobby looked at her, then away, he shook his head, "No…I really…really don't think we should.  In fact, I don't think I really have anything to say to you…"

          "Look, I know that you're mad at me…" Rogue began, she stepped towards Bobby, but he recoiled, turning his back on her.

          Rogue became increasingly aware the air grew colder, and when she exhaled she saw her breath mist.  Her arms tingled beneath her thick sweater, and her fingers stung.  Bobby's powers were apparently being affected by his emotions, and currently it didn't seem like a good thing.

          "Or maybe you're more than just mad…maybe you're just hurt…" Rogue gazed around the hallway, spiderwebs of ice were beginning to travel up the floor and up the walls.  She realised she should probably amend the situation as quickly as possible before his powers did some damage.  "I'm sorry, Bobby, I just…I overreacted…"

          Bobby spun around and looked at her, eyes cold, glaring at her, "I don't want to hear it," He hissed, and turned, leaving quickly without giving Rogue enough time to respond.

          Rogue sighed and put her hands to her head, "Well…that went…ugh."


	2. Chapter 2: Familiar Kiss

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 11

Chapter 2:  Familiar Kiss

          Kitty Pryde entered the Danger Room control annex to overlook a training session taking place.  Ororo Munro was suspended by the winds she could create from the thinnest of air.  Bobby Drake was creating ice shields from the moisture in the air to avoid being hit by dangerous cannonballs as they soared through the air towards him.  Kurt Wagner was teleporting to and fro between holographic enemies and Piotr Rasputin was ripping the head off an exceptionally large robot.  The strength involved left Kitty wincing slightly.

          "Kitty…" Logan – who was stationed at the control panel – stated without turning to see her, "What's up?"

          "Nothin'," Kitty said, she took a seat beside him, "Just got back from that stupid counselling thing."

"How was it?" Logan asked casually.

"Oh, you know, he just asked stupid questions like 'how do you feel about that' and asked stupid questions.  I'd have probably been better psychoanalysing myself."

"So what brings you down here?" Logan asked, changing the subject seeing that it was something she just didn't feel like talking about, the expression in her eyes became slightly misty.

"Just thought I'd see what everyone is up to," Kitty shrugged.

          "When was the last time you worked out in here?" Logan asked gruffly, his eyes never leaving the X-Men training in the Danger Room.  He scratched his stubbled chin absently, he pressed a few buttons on the console, and pushed the Danger Room session level lever up a little more so the level became more intense.

          "I can't remember," Kitty sighed, "been so preoccupied…" she stared out beyond the glass longingly at Piotr, wishing she could just find it in herself to tell him how she felt.  And he remained none the wiser.  In her thoughts the word 'big stupid ox' came to mind.

          Logan turned to glance at her with his steely eyes momentarily, "Better not keep skipping training, squirt, you'll lose technique and endurance if you don't practice every day, and you don't want to get too out of shape."

          "God I know," Kitty said miserably, "I can already practically feel the flab growing over my body like an incurable cancer."

          "You've never had flab," Logan chuckled, "you barely weigh ninety pounds."

          "That's just because I'm a short ass," Kitty mumbled, "any way, the reason I haven't been working out lately is I'm so tired I'm scared I might jeopardize someone else's safety with my own carelessness, and that's not good."

Logan turned towards her fully, "What's eatin' at you…?"

Kitty looked away, "Nothin'," she lied.

Logan raised an eyebrow, he put his hand on her cheek and turned her head so she looked at him, "I know you too well to believe that bullshit 'nothin' comment for one minute," he said, his voice soft, but still like gravel.   "What's wrong?"

Kitty sighed, "I don't know," She moved away from Logan's hand, "everything…" she shook her head, "I just…I can't get over this feeling of guilt every time I look at Rogue…you know, the question of 'what if it HAD been really Remy' I convinced to commit suicide with my own stupidity."

Logan sighed for a moment, "Kitty, you're not stupid.  You're stressed, look at you, I can practically see it stretched upon that little face of yours," he clamped his hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring shake. 

Kitty sniffled, "I should have listened to Hank…" she confessed, "he was right, I needed some time to adjust to my parents dying, this…"

"Look, you tried your best, at the end of the day you were only tryin' to help him.  He had his own choice to throw a rope round his neck and take the leap, you didn't push him."

"I may has well have…" Kitty said sheepishly.

Logan shook his head, "no, that's not true.  And anyway, if you hadn't done what you did, we'd all still be thinkin' he was the real Cajun.   He even fooled me," Logan stated.

Kitty shrugged, "I guess," she stared out of the window and decided to rapidly change the subject, "has Piotr mentioned how long he's going to be staying here?" she asked in a careful nonchalant tone as she swept her brown hair away from her face.

          "I don't think so," Logan responded, "I think what with this situation with the clone and all that Piotr is probably gonna stay a while longer, just in case something bad goes down."

          "That's…nice of him," Kitty admitted.

          "He's a good guy."

          Kitty nodded, "Yeah…yeah, he is…he's great," she stood up, "Well, I guess I better go see to dinner, it's my turn to cook tonight."

          "Oh great, just what I needed…bean sprouts and tofu," Logan made a face.

          "Actually I'm making pasta tonight," Kitty swatted his head playfully, "have you seen Rogue anywhere?"

          "Saw her earlier heading along to the war room to speak to Jean."

          "I wanted to make sure she had gotten some sleep, she looks SO exhausted, I'm just afraid she'll crack under the strain of all this stuff," Kitty sighed.

"By the looks of it, she's not the only one," Logan pointed out, staring right at Kitty.

Kitty chose to ignore his statement, "I'll see you later."

          Kitty left the Control Annex and headed along the corridor to where the War room entrance was located, she took a deep breath, and stepped in, finding Jean alone in there.  Jean was sitting at the computer console and was going through a very long print out, every so often typing something into the computer, then going back to look at the print out.

          "What you got there?" Kitty asked curiously, approaching.

          "A list of every person who attended that conference in Washington…the one Hank attended."

          "Oh, right," Kitty said, "Need help?"

          "I'll manage somehow," Jean said, "right now I'm doing a search on every name in the list to find out if any of them are linked to scientific careers or careers in medicine, hopefully this might help us get a lead on who cloned Remy."

          "Won't that take some time?" Kitty asked concernedly.

          "Yes, but it's all we have to work on right now.  I can't find any information about robberies that I can really link to Remy."

          "Even if he had been involved in any robberies around the time he was traced by Piotr's cousin, Remy was that good at his work, he probably covered his tracks," Kitty admitted, then paused to add a thought, "But…y'know, he had gotten a little careless in the end, so who knows…"

          Jean used a pink highlighter to score off a name on the list, "Only four hundred and fifty nine to go," she said to herself.

          "Are you sure you don't want some help?  I mean, I'm SUPPOSED to be making dinner, but I could always do what Kurt does when it's his turn to cook and call for pizza…" Kitty suggested.  "I don't think anyone will mind…"

          Jean smiled, "no, its fine, and speaking of Kurt, he's coming along in a while to give me a hand with this – after his Danger Room training session."

          Kitty nodded, "Alright…well, anyway, I better go get dinner made…" she touched Jean's shoulder, "I'll see you at dinner."

          "Alright," Jean responded with a curt nod. 

          As Kitty left the room, she found herself wondering why her own life had begun to go badly downhill.  Kitty pondered if this was maybe because she'd gotten careless, or too comfortable living at the mansion.  Forgotten what really counted – her family.  Now the only family she had were the ones she had no interest in being around, the ones who thought of her as an outsider because of her powers.  She felt truly alone now, and no matter how close she was to the X-Men and no matter how much she felt they were just another family to her, she still felt detached.

          She'd just climbed into the elevator when she heard Kurt calling out for her.

          "Kitty, hold the elevator!"

          Kitty pressed her hand against the door button to hold it open and waited patiently, a moment later, Kurt appeared, his hair and fur slightly damp with sweat, his breathing was hard.

          "Good work out?" she asked, she pushed the button and the elevator began to slowly ascend up to the first floor of the mansion.

          "Like you wouldn't believe," Kurt responded, he leaned against the wall of the elevator, "where've you been?  I've been looking for you all day…"

          "Professor Xavier made me go to a private counsellor in the City," Kitty responded, "I only got back about an hour ago," she responded.

          "How did that go?" Kurt asked, he had a small white towel around his neck, he removed it and began to dab at his damp face with it.

          "Oh, you know, stupid questions that don't have any relevance, and all the rest.  Professor Xavier wants me to go back…"

          "Maybe you should…" Kurt looked at her with his silvery eyes.

          Kitty put her hands to her face and sighed into them, "I just want all of this stuff to end.  I don't want to have to relive every detail with a stranger."

          Kurt brushed his fingers against Kitty's hair, "are you alright?"

          "If I was would the Professor insist on me seeing a counsellor?" she asked.

          Kurt moved over and slipped his arms around her, and despite his sweat-tinged fur and uniform, Kitty didn't even mind.  "It'll get better," he promised, "it just has to get worse before it gets better."

          "I guess," Kitty rested her head against his shoulder, she gripped onto his arms, just glad of the embrace, she sighed sadly, and held on a little tighter.

          The elevator doors slid open, and Kitty moved back hearing this, she stared at Kurt for a moment, his expression was unreadable for a few seconds, and then all too familiar.  She knew what was coming – something that she'd experienced what seemed like a thousand times – but she didn't have enough chance to respond or avoid the kiss that came.  His kiss was just as familiar as it had always been, and his embrace just as tender.  For a moment she was almost enveloped in it, seduced by the familiar and comforting sensations, but quickly reminded herself this wasn't appropriate, especially out in the hall, and especially when she just didn't feel that way about Kurt anymore.

          "I can't…" she pulled away slowly, she pushed her hands softly against her chest, "I…I gotta go…gotta make dinner," she said, and took off towards the kitchen without another word.


	3. Chapter 3: A New Plan

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 11

Chapter 3:  A New Plan

          Kitty entered the kitchen quickly, yanking a cupboard door open and hauling out a very large pot, she felt flustered and confused.  She couldn't understand why Kurt had chosen this moment in time to kiss her, and she couldn't understand why he'd chosen to ignore the fact the last time they'd broken up she'd said it was the last time.

          "God, I can't deal with this right now…" she said to herself.

          "Can't deal with what?" she heard Rogue's voice, she turned to see Rogue sauntering looking thoroughly confused.

          Kitty shook her head, "dinner…I can't deal with dinner…help me…?"

          "Alright," Rogue shrugged, "what are you making."

          "Mac and cheese, Garlic Bread, Spaghetti Bolognaise and for those who aren't into pasta, French fries and vegetarian sausages" Kitty hauled the pot up to the sink and began to fill it with water, "I spoke with Jean, she's going through the list of people who attended the conference Hank and looking them up on the database to see if any of them have medical or scientific professions…"

          "Did she find any information on high profile robberies that Remy might have been involved in?" Rogue asked softly, she headed for the fridge and began to retrieve the ingredients Kitty would need.

          "Not really…" Kitty shrugged, "Oh, by the way, Logan and Hank secretly sent the clone to the hospital and someone found the body, it was in the news," she gestured to the kitchen table, "thought you might want to see."

          "So…do they think it's Remy?" Rogue asked.

          "They have no reason to doubt it," Kitty reminded, "he's identical.  And...the good thing is because they think the clone is Remy, they're going to give up looking for him, which means Remy might actually NOT have to live in fear any more."

          "Yeah, if he has a face lift, dyes his hair and changes his eye colour," Rogue gave Kitty a strange look.  "God I wish we'd just find him already, I'm frantic not knowing where he is…not knowing if he's safe…not even knowing if…if he's really behind all this…if he did this to spite us."

          "Remy isn't like that…he still LOVES you, and he wouldn't do something like this…he's made some pretty critical errors in judgement in his life, but to give a lunatic the kind of information that could destroy all the work we've done for mankind?  I mean…he's not THAT stupid…"

          Rogue sighed, she began to grate some cheese, "I know, that's what I feel in my heart…but if he isn't working for that lunatic willingly…then…he's in trouble…and god knows what kind of trouble he COULD be in…"

          "Has anyone checked the Global Criminal Database?" Kitty asked casually, she retrieved a large box of pasta from a cupboard.

          "Not to my knowledge, you think we'd find anything?"

          "Well…" Kitty paused for thought, then poured the pasta into the pot of water and hauled the pot onto the stove, "Maybe, I mean…Remy has a criminal record, it'd be interesting to see what kind of information he'd have on there…" she explained.

          "But…isn't it out of our accessibility?" Rogue folded her arms giving Kitty a curious expression.

          "Of course it is, it'd need to be hacked into."

          "I thought you didn't believe in hacking."

          "Yeah, well, a guy I dated taught me how to," Kitty shrugged and turned the heat on under the pot.  "it might come in useful."

          "So…what would we need to hack into this database thingy?" Rogue asked.

          "Well…it's a government site, so I'm guessing that security for that site is going to be majorly high.  We'd have to use the computers in the war room."

          "And?"

          "I'd need about twelve thousand dollars worth of software," Kitty made a face, "I'm just not sure the Professor would be up for me hacking into the government information servers," she chewed her lip, "And I'm about eleven thousand dollars short."

          "We could talk to the Prof.  You never know, he might be up for it.  I can talk to him…what kind of software?"

          "Okay, first we need a HUD connection analyser, otherwise we won't be able to tell what kind of security they have on the server."

          Rogue made a mental note, "Okay, what else…"

          "It's hard to say without knowing what kind of security they have first…"

          "Well…make a rough guess…" Rogue suggested.

          "Trace Tracker 4.0, proxy bypasser 5.0, firewall bypasser 5.0, monitor bypasser 5.0, Elliption Curve Decipher 1.0, Password Breaker 1.0, Log Deleter 4.0, and Voice Analyser 1.0," Kitty said quickly.

          Rogue raised an eyebrow, "that's all, huh?  You scare me sometimes," she grabbed a pen and notepad from the small table by the wall near the phone, "write this down…I can't remember all that…Elliption Curve Analyser?"

          "Decipher," Kitty stated, "We'll probably need it to get past the login screens."

          "Right…" Rogue was quite surprised at Kitty's sudden knowledge about this, she'd never really shown any interest upon Hacking in the past. 

          "I know a guy who knows a guy in the City who'll get me the stuff at a lower price…usually this stuff costs about thirty thousand dollars, but I can get it cheap…" Kitty said.  "All we need is cash up front."

          "How do you KNOW all this?" Rogue raised an eyebrow.

          "I told you, the Tommy – the guy I dated – showed me.  He was a big computer geek," Kitty grinned.

          "Were you the one who turned him in by any chance?" Rogue smirked.

          "No," Kitty began quickly jotting all the software down.

          "Is that the same guy who got twenty years for hacking into three different banks and dropping two point three million into his own bank account."

          "That's the one," Kitty smirked.  "He got a little sloppy with that one…the stupid buffoon has this program he calls a 'log deleter' and he deleted all the logs in the administration section of the bank's server, but he forgot to delete the statements left when the bank transferred the money over."

          Rogue rolled her eyes, "only a guy could do something stupid like that," she shook her head.  Kitty handed her the list of software and Rogue gave it a quick glance, "hope the Professor will be up for this."

          "It's breaking the law," Kitty said, "I don't think he will be but…we're desperate, god knows what kind of bad stuff this evil scientist guy could be doing and what it could lead to."  
          "What if we get caught by the way?" Rogue's green eyes met Kitty's sapphire blue ones momentarily.

          "We won't.  I can bounce the connection from one place to another from different servers long enough to prevent being caught."

          "I hope you're right."

          "Professor…"

          Professor Xavier raised his head as Rogue knocked on the door of his office, he was doing some investigation of his own, but as of yet had not come up with anything remotely useful.  "Come in, Rogue," he said softly, and watched Rogue enter.

          The sunlight streaming in from between the blind slats at the window hit Rogue, as the bright white light hit her face Professor Xavier could see she'd barely slept at all in the last few days, and he felt an immediate concern.

          "Rogue, you look terrible."

          "Just what a girl always wants to hear," Rogue stated, but smirked a little, she walked over, the piece of paper still clutched in her hand, "I…I have something to ask…just hear me out before you make any judgements, that's all I ask," she added.

          "Alright…" Professor Xavier leaned up straighter in his wheelchair, and folded his arms comfortably over his stomach, "ask away."

          "Me and Kitty were thinking, and…well…Kitty came up with this…uhm…idea," Rogue sat on the edge of the desk and turned towards the Professor, "that maybe we should uhm…hack the uhm…database of criminals or something."

          "The Government Global Criminal Database?" Professor Xavier asked, "do you realise that would be illegal?"

          "Yes," Rogue stated, "We both realise that, of course, but…Kitty figured that maybe Remy's criminal record would be up there and that we might find something useful on it…"

          "What would you expect to find?" Professor Xavier asked.

          "I'm not sure," Rogue shrugged, "Maybe some idea of who he might have worked for…or if he'd ever been caught before, or whatever, I just…I don't know, but it's worth a try isn't it?"  Rogue put the list down in front of the Professor, "this is the list of stuff Kitty would need to do it."

          "The software we would need to pull off something like that would cost a fortune, Rogue," the Professor explained, "And...it would be extremely difficult to buy this amount of software anonymously…"

          "Kitty says she knows a guy who can get it all for around twelve grand."

          "More illegal activity, I'm appalled," Professor Xavier made a face.

          "Professor, we're running out of time…I don't know HOW I know that, I just do, god knows what could happen if we don't act quickly on this, if we don't find Remy and this scientist guy, who knows what might happen, for all we know the whole world could be crawling with clones…"

          "I do realise that," The Professor sighed, "it does concern me that whoever is doing this may be cloning politicians and replacing them…"

          Rogue tossed her hair over her shoulder, "So…I guess – and I feel horrible for asking this because you've already done so much for me – I'm asking…for some cash to buy this stuff…" she looked at him pleadingly, "I will somehow pay you back…I don't care if I have to be come a waitress at McDuggins or a topless model for some sleazy porn magazine, I will get that money back to you…"

          "Rogue, I will give you the money on one condition," Professor Xavier moved away from the desk, wheeled over to the wall, and pulled a painting away from the wall – it was almost attached like a door.  He reached up and turned the combination lock, and moments later the thick safe door built into the wall swung open.

          "What condition, Professor?" Rogue asked feeling a little panicked as to what the terms of the agreement might be.

          "I'm going to give you some sedatives, and I want you AND Kitty to take them after dinner and get as much sleep as you can.   I'm worried about the both of you."

          "I…uhm…" Rogue didn't like the idea of sleep, afraid she might miss some vital information or might sleep through something important and miss her change to save Remy.  But…she was tired, and the Professor was right, she and Kitty both needed sleep – they'd both been stressing too much lately about Remy and with the avoidance of sleep, Rogue was already beginning to feel light-headed constantly.  "Alright," she finally agreed, "alright."


	4. Chapter 4: The Global Criminal Database

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 11

Chapter 4:  The Global Criminal Database

          It was two days later before Kitty Pryde had managed to obtain the necessary software.  In those two days, there had been little sleep, even sedatives weren't enough to ease Rogue's troubled mind for the time being, and whenever she'd sleep that nightmare of Remy's fear would come back.  In those nightmares those red eyes would be looking straight at her, and that maniacal laughter would ring out in her head.

          On the eighteenth of February, a very cold Tuesday evening when Rogue entered  the war room, whilst Kitty was slouched over the keyboard waiting for the final program – the voice analyser to install.  "Hey, how's it goin'?" Rogue asked, she approached and pulled up a chair beside Kitty.

          "Slow," Kitty sighed, "I've been installing this software since eight am this morning," Kitty glanced at her watch, "it's now six pm," she yawned, "I could sure use a break but I'm anxious to get this all done."

          Rogue nodded, "so…what's the plan exactly?"

          "Well...I got in touch with Tommy's brother Ryan who's also a hacker, and he said the government servers need voice authorisation by the systems administrator," Kitty made a face, "so I'm installing the voice analyser now then I'm gonna use an old unregistered cellphone to call up the guy – wasn't too difficult to find out who he is, I found out via a public access server.  What I need to do is call up the systems admin and somehow get him to say just a few things, then the voice analyser will do the rest."

          "Right…"

          Kitty raised her head, "100%!" she said excitedly, "bingo," she added, she picked up the nearby cellphone and battery operated tape recorder, "ok here goes," she dialled the number into the phone, and walked away from the computer to avoid the signal being interfered with, she put the phone on speaker phone, and waited patiently, she clicked record on the tape recorder as soon as the voice came.

          "Hello?" came a man's voice, a pause, then "hellooooo?  Who's there?  C'mon…Hello?"

          Rogue pursed her lips together to stop from laughing, it almost felt like they were making a prank call to someone just for fun.  Kitty smirked and hung up, "that's all I need," she said.

          "Right…now what?"

          Kitty turned the phone off completely, walked over and turned on the computer's microphone.  She loaded up the voice analyser software and she hit the record button on it, she placed the tape recorder next to it, and replayed the voice.

          Moments later, the voice analyser was processing the voice, then a small 'ready for playback' message appeared on the bottom of the screen.

          "Okay, I hope that worked," Kitty clicked on the playback button with the mouse.  "Let's test it."

          "I am the systems administrator, my voice is my passport, verify me," played clearly through the computer in a loud voice, identical to that of the man who Kitty had called.

          "Yes!" Kitty grinned, "okay, now comes the hard bit," she said, she loaded up a screen of a map, "this is a map of the world and these little white dots are all different sites, I'm going to bounce the connection from them, this will make us harder to trace, as long as I remember to clear the logs of the server." She began to click rapidly on various dots, and then on a red dot in the centre of the US area of the map, "there…" she said, she typed in a command to run more software and the trace tracker came up on the screen as a very small bar showing 'no traces'."

          Kitty looked at Rogue, "Okay…this is it, you ready?" she asked.

          "As ready as I'll ever be."

          Kitty clicked on the 'connect' button on the screen and with several beeps, and a few moments, along came a login screen.  There were three sections.  User ID, Voice Verification and Elliption Curve Decipher.  "Told you it'd be tough," she said, she clicked upon the user ID box and typed in the word 'Admin' then loaded up the password breaker, "okay," she said, "we're about to start getting traced, hopefully I've used enough bounces to slow it down," she clicked on the blank space where the ID password would be, a small beep indicated a trace was beginning.  Rogue squinted to make out the tiny text.

          "Eight hundred seconds?" Rogue asked, "will that be enough to find what we're looking for?" she asked, watching the seconds going quickly by on the small bar at the bottom right hand side of the screen.

          "I hope so.  Just keep an eye on the trace tracker for me, brief me on how much time I have left before I have to disconnect, if we let it get too close, the server will disconnect us itself and we'll be traced and probably arrested within the next hour…" Kitty said making a face.  She watched each letter from the password slowly appearing on the log in screen, then hit the proceed button once the password was complete, she hit the voice verification button and clicked on the voice analyser button to play the systems administrator's voice. 

          "I am the systems administrator, my voice is my passport, verify me."

          Moments later, the proceed button became available, Kitty clicked upon it.

          "Seven hundred seconds, Kitty," Rogue said quickly.

          "Right," Kitty nodded, she clicked on the Decipher login and loaded up the Elliption Curve Decipher software and ran it, numbers began to flit across the screen wildly at a fast rate, blinking with white blocks as the software began to work its magic.  "Faster," she pleaded of the software, "faster, faster."

          "Six hundred and thirty seconds," Rogue stated.

          "We're in!" Kitty said, she hit the proceed button under the decipher login and another screen came up with two options, 'Search' and 'Admin'.

          "Is Remy his full first name?" Kitty asked as she clicked on the search button.  It brought up three options, Prisoner Number, Prisoner Name or MRP Number.

          "As far as I know," Rogue glanced at the trace tracker, "five hundred and eighty seconds."

          Kitty typed in the name LeBeau, Remy in the name field, and waited as several records began to flash by on the screen, it was taking its time locating his name.  Kitty felt panic building in herself, "how much longer before they trace us?"

          "Four hundred and ninety seconds."

          "Shit," Kitty whined, "hurry up!" she screamed at the screen.

          Finally, the screen loaded up, the name 'LeBeau, Remy' with a large bulk of information, his height, weight, known aliases, and other files.

          "Three hundred and two seconds, Kitty," Rogue whispered.

          Kitty hit the print button, loaded up a second screen and hit the print button, she began to go through the records listed, "Says here he's also known by the Alias Jeremy D'Ancanto," Kitty glanced towards Rogue quickly, "He's using your surname as an alias for crime."

          "I'll kill him," Rogue frowned, "what else does it say?"

          "We'll see on the print outs," Kitty stated, "hey…what's this…?" she raised an eyebrow.

          "What?" Rogue leaned closer to the monitor and stared hard.

          "Incarceration April 2005 GMCF," she pointed to a record on the screen, "it doesn't give any reasons why or what that is though.  There's another one here…" Kitty added, "Incarceration December 2007 GMCF."

          "GMCF?" Rogue asked, she glanced to the trace tracker, "Oh shit, Kitty, one hundred seconds!" she became aware that the trace tracker was beeping louder, the beeps closer together indicating time was running out. 

          "Right, right!" Kitty began to panic once again, she hit print on the final few pages of his records and then closed the search panel and let herself into the admin section, she loaded up the Log Deleting software and began to delete any logs she'd left from her search, "after this we gotta go to the first two places I bounced from and delete any logs I left there from my connection being rerouted, that way they won't be able to trace it back here," she said, she disconnected from the Global Criminal Database.

          Rogue moved over to the printer and retrieved the print outs, "He never mentioned he'd been caught…" she said softly, "looks like they came close to catching him several times before they got him too…" she read off the information from the print outs, "Dec 2003 – apprehended and escaped.  May 2004 – arrested and imprisoned in police headquarters…the list goes on and on…"

          "Sounds like my thoughts about him being a little careless couldn't have been more accurate…it just…it wasn't like him to let himself get caught," Kitty finished what she was doing and turned the computer off, she walked over to retrieve some of the print outs.

          "What's this GMCF thing?" Rogue asked, "I've never heard of that…is it a prison?"

          "Probably, says incarcerated, doesn't it," Kitty glanced over the print outs, "I think we should speak with the Professor, maybe he'll know…"

          "Know what?" they both turned to see the Professor wheeling in, he looked slightly concerned at the mention of his name.

          "What this GMCF thing is, it was mentioned in Remy's criminal record," Kitty held up the print out.  "We think it might be a prison, says he was incarcerated twice, doesn't say he escaped or was let go…"

          "Interesting," The Professor took the print outs from Kitty and surveyed them closely, "I've certainly never heard of this…I think perhaps it would be a good idea to look up the global criminal database a little more to see how many criminals have been incarcerated in GMCF."

          "Good idea," Kitty said, "do you think this could have any relevance?"

          "Possibly…the fact that a acronym is used instead of the name of the prison does seem suspicious, however, it could be we're just dealing with a lazy administrator.  Still…it is worth looking into."

          "Has Jean found anything, yet?" Rogue asked.

          "Possibly, she's on the phone in my office with the manager of the conference hall, I'm unsure of the purpose of her call but we can only hope," The Professor smiled faintly, "Rogue, please review those records on Remy and see if you can find any other info about this 'GMCF'.  Kitty, please, continue with your…uh, 'hacking', and see what else you can dig up concerning 'GMCF'," The Professor instructed, "I want everyone in here at 8pm for a discussion to see if the others who have been investigating have found anything at all.  We must keep each other informed."

          Rogue and Kitty both nodded, and in unison said "yes, Professor," and watched as the Professor left them in the silent war room.


	5. Chapter 5: GMCF

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 11

Chapter 5:  GMCF

          Rogue took a seat around the large circular table in the war room, holding the pile of print outs Kitty had made on Remy's criminal records online.  The others all sat around the table once again, silent as they had been on the morning after the clone's death.

          Rogue glanced across the table, Bobby Drake looked thoroughly distraught, his pale blue eyes staring into space, his face twisted to try and hide emotion, but Rogue could tell just from the way he pursed his lips he was nowhere as fine as he was making out. 

She felt terrible and wished he'd just pay her a tiny bit of attention – just enough to put across the fact she was sorry.  But she knew how it felt to be hurt, and how long it could take for the anger to slide away.  It'd taken her seven years to get over the hurt Remy's leaving had caused her, she knew how it felt to be burned by the fire of love and be left with nothing more than the ashes of it. 

          "Is it just me, or is it cold in here?" Kitty shivered, as she spoke, her breath steamed visibly in the air, and she made a face, "did someone forget to pay the heating bill or something?" she hugged herself, still shivering.

          Rogue glanced down to the chrome table, there was a very thin sheen of frost forming upon the top, she felt her cheeks burn from embarrassment, obviously being in the same room with her was causing Bobby's emotions to run slightly higher than usual.  And it wasn't uncommon for mutant powers to manifest accidentally during periods of heightened emotional stress.

          "Bobby…?" Jean turned towards Bobby, her expression one of the utmost concern, "are you alright?"

          "Fine, just leave it," Bobby uttered, he folded his arms, sighed and frowned, staring towards the table top refusing to raise his eyes from there, as if he were afraid they might stray towards Rogue.

          How can someone like him love me?  Rogue pondered as she ran her gloved finger against the layer of frost which had begun to grow thicker.  Her finger left a trail of clear chrome tabletop behind, she chewed her lip and glanced over to Bobby wondering once again how she'd be able to fix all this.

          "I am sorry I am late…" the Professor said as he, "I was on the telephone with someone…okay, shall we begin, who wants to start?"

          "I guess I will…" Jean spoke up, "me and Kurt checked over every single name on this list of people who attended the conference, and two names on the list don't check out.  One doesn't seem quite right and the other doesn't have any records what so ever…at least not that I can trace…" Jean said.

          "Who are they?" Piotr asked sitting forward in his chair a little, looking rather intrigued.

          Jean looked down at the papers in front of her as if to check once again to make sure she had her information straight, "A woman, by the name of Elle Muir, I did find one match for the name on the database but…she would be an elderly lady in her late eighties, I doubt she could be involved in this."

          Kitty paused, then glanced across the table at Jean, "what makes you so sure?  What if she's mutant and she has decelerated lifespan due to a healing factor similar to Logan's?"

          "Good point," Logan said, "I'm living proof someone can be well over the age of a senior citizen and still be capable of anything."

          "How WELL over the age of senior citizen just ARE we talking here anyway?" Kurt asked curiously of Logan, raising an eyebrow.

          "Mind your own business, blue," Logan snorted.

          "Alright, so you think this name might be a lead?" Kitty asked of Jean, changing the subject of Logan's age.

          "Normally I would think so," Jean said softly, "but…I had a friend of mine – a private investigator with some excellent tracking skills and well, Elle Muir is a woman who lives in Salt Lake City, devout Christian, goes to church, involved heavily in charity up until she broke her leg four years ago, that was as much as he could dig up in the short time I gave him.  He did say that as far as he could see there was no information regarding any mutant ability.  I did also think about decelerated aging," Jean confirmed.

          "What about the other name?" Rogue asked, brushing her hair away from her face.  "You said there were two names that didn't add up…"

          "A Nathan Xiessel, an odd surname I had never heard of before…I can't find anything on it, or any background history on the name even.

          "That name sounds foreign," Bobby said, it was the first time he'd spoken.

          Rogue glanced over at him but he was still avoiding looking right at her.

          "Nothing on him either?" Logan asked.

          "Nothing at all, its like he doesn't exist," Jean scratched her head.  "I'm going to do more digging and see what I can come up with…I'm going to call the conference hall and find out if they keep any security cameras up by the entrances."

          "Doesn't that mean matching a face to EVERY name on that list?" Kurt groaned.

          "It's necessary if we want to find Remy," Rogue glanced over at Kurt with a cold glare, "he could be in trouble, we have to do EVERYTHING we can, even if its painstakingly difficult and sounds impossible."

          "What else have we found?" Piotr asked, changing the subject, sensing a fight might break out between Kurt and Rogue at any moment.  The fact that they were only foster brother and sister never stopped them from arguing as true-blood family when the occasion rose.

          Rogue gestured towards Remy's criminal records that had been on the Global Criminal Database, "Kitty hacked into the GCD earlier this evening and got this…Remy's criminal record."

          "Look at how thick it is…" Scott gaped.

          "Yeah, weird, isn't it?  I mean I always figured Remy as the careful type," Rogue admitted, she flicked through the pages, "He was actually caught quite a few times, charged with stupid petty crimes…and I don't get why…I mean he never lets himself get caught, and I just don't believe he's THAT careless."

          "I spent time with him, he had several thousand dollars worth of stolen merchandise in his apartment, he COULD be that careless," Kitty protested.

          Rogue didn't feel like starting an argument with her best friend over this – especially not at that moment, but she decided to take a stab at redeeming Remy's talent for criminal actions, "but he was smart…he just wouldn't have been that stupid."

"Hell-o," Kitty chanted, "he was depressed," she sighed, "and it's no secret."

Rogue folded her arms stubbornly, "what does that have to do with this?"

"Depression can make you like, not care," Kitty said, "maybe he just…I don't know, gave up, didn't see the point in anything anymore…?"

Rogue ignored this, and decided to continue with what she'd found out on the records, "he also went under a few other aliases such as Jeremy D'Ancanto," Rogue felt her cheeks go red.  The only person in the mansion who knew her surname – or in fact her first name – was Kitty.  The others weren't to know why Remy would have used this surname, but she still felt the embarrassment of it.  "In January to March in 2005 he also went under the names of  'Ross Gellar' while he was in Florida, 'Joey Tribbiani' while he was in Michigan, and 'Chandler Bing' while he was in Wisconsin…"

Kurt started laughing hysterically, and a few chuckles escaped the room.

Professor Xavier raised an eyebrow, "Is something amusing?"

Rogue chewed her lip, and glanced towards Kitty, pleading with her eyes to explain it to the Professor.

Kitty giggled, "Haven't you ever heard of 'Friends'?" She asked, "You know, that sitcom, from the 90s…god, no one watches it now, its so out of date, but like, it was REALLY popular…and anyway, those names were three of the characters," Kitty explained.

"And stupidly enough," Rogue raised an eyebrow, "the cops didn't realise this until his second arrest on EACH name…"

"Damn, even the cops aren't tryin' anymore," Logan chuckled.

          "Was he TRYING to get sent to prison?" Kurt asked, "using stupid obvious names like that and all?"

          "I don't know…I know its not significant or anything," Rogue said, "it's like Kitty said, he could have just been slipping…or that he was just being an idiot and trying to raise some attention…" Rogue thought back to some of the stupid things Remy had done in his past and that kind of thing certainly wasn't beneath him.  "But anyway, the only thing I could find is that he was arrested in Seattle during April 2005, and ended up somewhere that's noted on the criminal record as GMCF."

          "What the hell is that?" Logan asked gruffly.

          "I have no clue," Rogue said, "It doesn't give any information as to what he was arrested for exactly…"

          "Maybe it's some kind of rehab," Bobby stated coldly.

          Rogue shot a look over at him, he still didn't raise his eyes from the table, "Remy doesn't use drugs, nor drink heavily…"

          "How do you know that?" Bobby demanded, "We hadn't seen him in seven years, for all we know he could be a heroin user…"

          "I saw his arms…his arms were clean," Rogue assured.

          "What if he was injecting it between his toes?" Bobby snapped.

          Rogue shook her head, "anyway," she decided to ignore Bobby now and promised herself she'd deal with him later.  "Remy was also arrested during the December of 2007 – in Paris."

          "Whoah…" Kitty blinked, "that kind of ties in with Piotr's cousin locating him – Piotr, didn't you say your cousin Ivan traced him to Paris two years ago."

          Piotr gave a curt nod, "yes."


	6. Chapter 6: Mutants Only

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 11

Chapter 6:  Mutants Only

          Kitty gave a loud groan as she disconnected from the Global Criminal Database for the ninth time that night.  It was getting late, and still no leads had been found.  Rogue was pouring over other print outs of the limited information that Kitty had gotten from there, mostly on the LeBeau family.  Only three members of the LeBeau family had ever been caught at all, it made it difficult to trace.  

          "This is getting us nowhere," Kitty grumbled as she began to clear the logs from the bounces she'd made to connect to the server.

          "Tell me about it," Rogue rubbed the back of her neck, which was starting to ache from leaning over the print outs for hours.  "His cousin got arrested – but there's nothing about this GMCF on those records, neither on the records of his uncle – his uncle was arrested in 1973 so that's no help at all," Rogue sat back, massaging her neck with her bare hands.

          Kitty tapped her fingernails absently on the countertop, "It'd help if we knew exactly what we were looking for," she muttered, "But all I'm getting is zilch.  His family have no leads at all…"

          "I wonder if his real family would have any leads…" Rogue pondered aloud, although she knew herself that without any information about Remy's true family she'd never be able to find out anything.

          "Unless we know their exact names I doubt we can find anything on them," Kitty spun her chair around to face Rogue, "Unless he ever told you?"

          "I don't even think he knows his own real last name," Rogue admitted softly, "which is kind of sad," she added.

          "Yeah, it is," Kitty brushed her bangs away from her forehead, "anything else?"

          "All I know is his mothers name was Gabrielle," Rogue explained, "he said that was all he knew…all he…held on to…"

          Kitty looked away, "so that's why he called his daughter Gabrielle."

          "That messed him up you know," Rogue said, "he was a little bit…y'know…left of centre, and all, but when Gabrielle died, I…I don't know, he just…changed," Rogue rubbed her forehead, "he was a little loony but not…not like he is now…"

          "You know it worries me a little, this clone thing," Kitty's expression changed to one of extreme concern, "I mean…what if…we never EVER knew Remy LeBeau, what all these years we've been dealing with clones?"

          Rogue shuddered, the thought made her feel cold all over, the thought of having been in love with nothing more than human skin with a memory chip in its brain.  "They're nothing more than cyborgs, really, half human, half machine…"

          "A little more than that," Kitty sighed, "god this is so…I don't know…futuristic and weird," she clenched her fists, "why can't we mutants ever just have normal situations…?"

          "I know," Rogue uttered, "sometimes seems like God is punishing us."

          Kitty turned back to the computer, "Remy shouldn't have left us, we could have helped him," she began to set up a connection for the Global Criminal Database again, "I'm gonna try again," she said firmly, "I'm not gonna give up – for Remy's sake."

          Rogue smiled and got up, moved over quickly and took a seat beside Kitty, "you're a good friend."

          Kitty smiled faintly, loaded up the necessary software and hit the connect button.  She'd added a few more bounce points, finding out that if she used servers where she already had login names, it seemed to take much longer to trace. 

Soon, she was breaking the password, deciphering the code and verifying the voice access panel to get into the database once again, "Okay, 1134 seconds – plenty of time," she grinned and proceeded to the search button.  She loaded up Remy's records once again, hoping this time she might find something she hadn't seen before.

The records hadn't changed since earlier when they'd hacked into the database.  Rogue stared at the picture of Remy, his hair was wet, his face unshaven and his eyes dark underneath, it made her shiver.  He looked hollow, as if nothing were behind those eyes, the expression was haunting, and she knew if she closed her eyes it'd still be burned inside her mind. 

Rogue leaned inwards towards the screen, gazing carefully at everything, reading intently, with the faith that something might have been missed.  "Hey," she said softly, "what does this mean…" She gestured to a small number on the screen in a box under the identification photograph of him. 

Kitty glanced at the record, "I don't know…arrest number?  Prisoner number?"

"I would have thought so, but the Prisoner number is here," Rogue pointed with her bare finger to a section of the record on the screen where it showed the relevant information.

"Hmmm," Kitty paused, "never noticed before," she glanced at the trace tracker, "we have 1020 seconds."

Rogue wrote down the number, "that number is vague, is there another search option?"

"Yes," Kitty said, she closed down the records screen and found the search options.  "Okay, we have Prisoner Number, Prisoner Name, and this MRP Number."

"What's MRP?" Rogue asked raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know, but let's try anyway," Kitty clicked inside the field, "what's the number?" she asked.

"5073-D," Rogue responded, reading off of the piece of paper she'd just written the number on.

The loading screen came up, slowly making its way towards something else in the database, Kitty glanced at the tracker, 932 seconds," she informed.  A new login screen came up, asking for password and voice verification, Kitty ran the software again taking an additional 60 seconds.  The passwords and verification were rejected due to limited security.

"They sure have this secured," Kitty frowned, she loaded up her software for firewall, proxy and monitor bypassing, and tried logging in again.  "Looks like someone is trying to keep people from finding something out," she muttered.

Moments later, a new record came up, almost identical to the record of Remy LeBeau, except there were noticeable differences. 

"Oh my god," Kitty whispered, "Look at this…Registered Mutant April 2005," she spun around and looked at Rogue, "the government are registering mutants?!" she demanded.

"That can't be!" Rogue frowned.  She knew that at some point in the February of 2005 there had been some political hearings about the Registration of Mutants.  A test had been made by registering twenty different mutants, all who'd been murdered by people because of what they were.  Just the thought of it made Rogue shudder.

"They're still fighting on this," Kitty reminded, "That conference Hank attended ages ago was on mutant registration and the incarceration of dangerous mutants, it makes me wonder if the government are just big fat doing it anyway," she frowned reading the screen.

Rogue read carefully near the bottom of the screen, "says here he was arrested on the 15th of April 2005 for kidnapping a politician…" she stated, "Taken to the…" she swallowed, "Mutant Containment Facility," her eyes bulged, "GMCF…that's what the MCF stands for…a mutant prison!"

"But where is it though?" Kitty asked, her blue eyes wide with wonder, she tucked her hair behind her ears and read more closely.

"Doesn't say," Rogue swallowed, "says he escaped on the 30th of January in 2006 though it doesn't say how," she added, "then again, he was arrested in December of 2007 in Paris, no reason is given but it was probably for escaping…taken again to Mutant Containment Facility – there isn't any further information to say he ever escaped or not again."

Kitty tapped her fingernail on the screen, "there's a connection to the GMCF from here, but I can't get to it without knowing who the systems administrator is," Kitty made a face, "Otherwise we can't find out more."

"Hey…do you think…that…?" Rogue trailed off looking a little anxious.

"What?" Kitty asked, turning to Rogue once again.

"That every mutant who's been arrested and kept in custody is probably taken to the GMCF…is there a way to find out?"

"Yeah, probably…" Kitty said, "if we look out in the newspapers for arrests on every single mutant and match it up to the GCD then we'll probably find out."

"I don't get it though…" Rogue pointed to the trace tracker which was getting closer to tracing them.

Kitty left the records and moved onto the logs section to delete them.

"How could any prison hold a mutant?" Rogue asked, "I mean…we're homo-sapiens superior, if there was a mutant containment facility somewhere, wouldn't the mutants just gang up together and bust themselves out?"

Kitty nodded, "I would have thought so, but obviously the government has come up with some way to contain mutants without having them break loose, maybe invincible walls or something?"

          "Walls of adamantium?"

          "Even that wouldn't be invincible," Kitty confessed, "Any mutant with decent pyrotechnic powers would probably be able to throw force at it enough to melt it.  If there were at least three or four pyrotechnic mutants in the place, they'd melt down a wall like that no problem as long as they were powerful enough.  It just wouldn't work."

          Rogue hugged herself, "something bad is going on here, Kitty…it's obvious this is bigger than just Remy…there's something really…really bad going on."

          Kitty disconnected from the Global Criminal Database and connected to another server to clear her bounce logs, "okay, so what have we learned so far?  There's some extensive scientific experimentation going on here, I mean cloning a human being?  That's huge, the stealing of Hank's research – that's even worse, that has trouble painted all over it.  Now we find out there's some sort of government conspiracy to register mutants?  And I still don't exactly understand Remy's involvement in all this," Kitty frowned, "Is he on our side or theirs, and if he's on their side why was he arrested and incarcerated…nothing is making sense…"

          "For that matter, why was Remy kidnapping a politician?" Rogue asked, "He's a thief, NOT an assassin…Thieves don't just kidnap people…"

          "It seems weird doesn't it, out of character for him to do something like that, and even more out of character to get caught so easily…"

          "Think a clone did it?"

          "Maybe," Kitty shrugged, "who knows…god this whole thing is giving me the creeps…"

          "I know what you mean, now I'm wondering if ANYONE we know is actually the real them…we hadn't seen Piotr in forever, now he's here, and what if he's also not really Piotr?"

          "No, he's really Piotr," Kitty assured, "besides, if he wasn't, why would he tell us about Remy being traced in Paris?"

          "Good point," Rogue admitted, "Alright I think we better speak with the Professor."

          Kitty looked away with worried eyes, her lip trembling, "Yes…maybe he can make some kind of…sense of all this because…I sure can't."

The End (or is it? DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.  Yes, I know its sucky and slow but if anything it's keeping people guessing.  As always keep reviewing, I love it so much seeing what people think – especially looking forward to the conspiracy theories that some come up with, its always interesting to see how people can guess what I'm getting at in the story.  Oh well, anyway…look out for episode 12.  Ta-ta. – Ash)


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